Such A Deal

Women Begin To Make A Dent In Car Showrooms Nationwide

November 20, 1994|By Amy Gage, Knight-Ridder/Tribune.

ST. PAUL — Car saleswoman Lynne Cahoon has been awarded enough baseball caps and man-sized sunglasses at trade shows to last a lifetime. A feminine woman in a distinctly male occupation, she also gets tired of "major league" male egos and crude behavior on the showroom floor.

"We had a salesman who'd pass gas. I said something," she says. "It doesn't radiate professionalism."

Cahoon has sold cars and trucks for two years at Quality Pontiac Buick GMC in Cannon Falls, Minn. To say she loves her profession may be an overstatement. Auto sales is difficult, Cahoon says, but she thrives on the challenge.

"I've been told I could sell anything," says Cahoon, who consistently moves at least 10 vehicles a month.

She would never work at a hypercompetitive city dealership, preferring her position as one of four sales people-and the only woman-in a quiet commuter town of 3,400, 30 miles south of St. Paul. She likes working for Judy Hasti, owner and general manager, in a business that may trail only the military in its numbers of men and its love of tradition.

Cahoon is one of 12,200 car saleswomen in the country, or 6.6 percent of the business, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association. That figure is up 9 percent from 1993 and compares with a 5 percent increase in total car salespeople.

Women are slowly changing the male-dominated auto industry, helping it to evolve from the stereotype that labeled car dealers slick charlatans, what Cahoon's husband calls "almost-honest Jacks." Some sales managers even are urging their salesmen to watch how the saleswomen operate, to learn from and emulate their style.

"The business has changed a lot over the last 15 years," says Larry Reaume, used-car manager at Borton Volvo in Minneapolis. "Women's attitudes and voices are being heard and respected much, much more, and that's good."

Reaume, 43, grew up in the car business. His dad owned a Pontiac-Buick dealership in Le Sueur, Minn., and Reaume himself got into the business in 1978. He echoes others when he says car saleswomen are more detail-oriented than male counterparts, more likely to walk the extra mile for their customers, more considerate of people's feelings.

"That's one thing women do better than guys, the little details that give the customer a good perception," Reaume says. "Little personal things like getting extra sets of keys, a tube of touchup paint, arranging their first oil-change visit with the service adviser."

Women in the business call it consulting rather than selling.

"You spend time with people; you get to know their likes and dislikes," says Theresa Norsted, the only saleswoman at Downtown Jaguar in Minneapolis. If she knows a customer enjoys skiing or boating, Norsted will mention her own interest in those sports. When she bought a Harley-Davidson motorcycle for her 40th birthday, she shared that too.

"The salesperson has to sell themselves first before they can sell a car," she says.

A 14-year veteran in a business notorious for its turnover, Norsted has been with the Jaguar dealership since 1990. Before that, she sold Mercedes-Benzes and Cadillacs. She says saleswomen must be especially willing to stick with the business and stay with one dealership to earn their credibility.

"There were a handful of women back when I started," she says. "A lot of women washed out. You've got to have commitment. You can't go in for a year or a summer. You need credentials and background."

Women also need an aggressive spirit to match that of men. Shrinking violets don't make it in this business.

"It's tough. You'd better have a wide backbone," says Diane Weeks, who often tops her male colleagues in new-car sales at Whitaker Buick Jeep Eagle in St. Paul.

A fast-talking, no-nonsense saleswoman, Weeks affords little time in her workday to anyone who doesn't want to buy a car, including friends and reporters.

"My priority is selling cars, so I can't make appointments unless it's for that," she says.

Car saleswomen have to walk a fine line between becoming one of the guys and being too much a lady. To give away their one trump card, to be brash and mannish, could scare away the 34 percent of female customers who say they prefer the softer sell of a saleswoman. But to shy away from competition in a business in which income is earned strictly by commission could spell career suicide.

Any advantage counts in sales, and women seem well aware of that. They're invariably well-coiffed, like the blond, tan Norsted, whose fitted suits flatter her figure and appear calculated to draw the eye of her Jaguar customers, many of whom are men. Yet car saleswomen have to be careful not to abuse their advantage, especially in winning favors with management.